Motor scooters

[RuthieJo]

I'm sister to MYellowRose (Molly) and she told me to post.

I'm trying to find women who are riding motor scooters. I have no transportation and my son is thinking of buying me a motor scooter, but I want to talk to some women who are riding them, and get the pros and cons.

Thanking you in advance.

[annabella1]

Ruthy-I have been thinking about this myself. although I am not doing it yet. My main obsticles are not enough room for all my stuff, and when the weather is bad. you also have to be really carefull of the other drivers out there. Cars and Trucks are a lot bigger.

[velojym]

Mrs V has a scooter, and she loves it.
There may be some vibration from the handlebars (ooh, she shoulda ridden my old poorly tuned CB500... yowza), so decent gloves are good to have. Besides, if you do fall over (unlikely, but ya gotta be prepared), you won't rash up your hands so badly.
Same goes for a jacket and maybe pants. Mrs V has a stylish rallye style leather jacket she wears with a black half-helmet.
Keep off the main thoroughfares, at least until you're familiar with the scooter and what it can/can't do. It's actually kinda pleasant to stick to the back roads, but they don't always go anywhere.

Even when the weather keeps you from riding, get out and ride it around the block a few times. Get the temperature up into the normal operating range to burn off any moisture and contaminants which may have collected in the oil. Mrs V usually just has me ride it around if the weather's bad.
We keep it inside the garage, so there isn't much trouble with it starting, and the regular runs keep the battery charged.
If you can't stay out long enough to warm the engine properly, you're probably better off just hooking the battery to a trickle charger and leaving it alone until you're ready to go.

As for myself, when I was riding motorcycles, I rode in all weather... but I got a lot of weird looks, too. Still do, when I'm on a bicycle and it's nasty out. I don't do that quite as much anymore, either.

[Mac_Muz]

I believe a Honda Rebel motorbike is far better and more reliable. Basicly these are bulle proof so far as maitaince is concernd.

Safety is also a issue and scooters tend to have very small wheels, which can be hard to deal with in some roads surfaces like one with pot holes.

Most scooters have lesser suspentions, and so can only really carry a rider, and sometimes a passenger.

A Reble can carry that passanger and a little gear.

A Rebel with just a rider can carry a lot of gear with a set of saddle bags over a set of saddle bags.

On either you need all the safety gear. The good oart is you only need the safety gear for the body parts you wish to keep in a crash..

You should have rain gear anytime you are out unless maybe you like in Az, or some other place you almost never need rain gear.

Any bike and scooter needs a auto trickel charger hooked up any time the vehical is not used, less being parked at work.

As I see it scooters are for just one person with very little concerns to take much, and go someplace. A personal trasport system for 1 and not much if any shoping. A Bigger bike like a Rebel can do more.

You can find larger scooters with bigger engines than a Rebel, and perhaos you can add more luggage to these.

I am a biker type of guy and so I don't know ALL about scooters, far from it, but I happen to know this site where you can get all the info and more you would ever dream of...

http://forum.motorcycle-usa.com/

It has a scooter room too...

[mike82934]

I don't know anything about electric scooters, but if the one you're considering will be gas-powered, it would probably be better to do like Mac suggested and look at an inexpensive motorcycle instead.
There is a slightly higher learning curve, but the advantage is that even a little 250cc engine, which my Kawasaki has, is as fast as you could ever want around town, and will also be able to keep up on the highway at 65mph. I'm not sure of the exact gas mileage, but I get roughly 50mpg in town...and keep in mind that I have been known to get a little rev-crazy on a motorcycle (yeah, I'm the one whose bike sounds like a mad bumblebee in a coffee can when I take off from a stop ;) ;D ).

[mike82934]

Oh, forgot to mention that if I need to carry cargo, I just wear a small backpack. It'll suffice for anything short of groceries.